Rediews—The Coal Question. 507 



THE COAL QUESTION. 

 I. — Age of the Coal-formation of China. 



IN two recent numbers of the Gteologioal Magazine (pp. 286 and 

 370), we have given notices of the coal-mines of China, since 

 "which there has appeared in the September number of the American 

 Journal of Science, a short paper on the age of the coal. From 

 specimens of coal plants sent over from China by Mr. K. Pumpellj, 

 the author was enabled to determine the age of the strata from 

 which they were taken, and to prove, rather imexpectedly, that a 

 large part of the great coal-fields of China are of Mesozoic age. 

 This conclusion is based on the entire absence of Carboniferous plants 

 from the collection : and the presence of well-marked cycads— 

 species of Podozamites and Pterozamites — closely allied to, if not 

 identical with, some heretofore found in Europe and America. 

 There are fragments of a new generic form, probably a cycad, in the 

 collection, and some obscure specimens that may represent other 

 plants new to science, but the Pecopteris, Sphenopteris, Podozamites, 

 Pterozamites, etc., have a very familiar look, and in their resem- 

 blance to well-known forms give fresh evidence of the monotony of 

 the vegetation of the globe previous to the introduction of the 

 angiospermous forests of the Cretaceous period. 



Whether the strata which have furnished these plants should be 

 considered Triassic or Jurassic remains to be determined by future 

 observations, as the fossils yet obtained can hardly be considered 

 sufficient for the solution of that question. 



II. — Mr. H. B. Medlicott's Eeport on the Coal of Assam, 



'AS been published in the " Memoirs of the G-eological Survey of 

 India." It appears that there are two places prominently 

 known in Assam as coal-producing, of which one is in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Jaipoor, in the Seebsaugor district, and the other (the 

 Terap field) is in the vicinity of Makoom. The Terap field, as at 

 present known, furnishes much better coal than that of Jaipoor, 

 which, however, has an advantage in geographical position ; but the 

 Jaipoor coal appears to be fit only for such purposes as burning 

 bricks and lime, while all the coal taken to the Bramahpootra for 

 steam purposes is from Terap. Mr. Medlicott's expedition does not 

 appear to have been attended with any very encouraging results 

 respecting the discovery of new coal-fields, and his time seems to 

 have been taken up, to a great extent, in discovering that the 

 " information" on which he was to act was entu'ely untrustworthy. 

 At the present time, however, any information on the subject of 

 colonial coal-fields is received with interest. 



in. — "Our Coal Supplies and our Prosperity" 



S the title of the only paper interesting to geologists in the 

 " Quarterly Journal of Science" for October. It is illustrated 



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